Art Teacher writes to Lord Waddington

David Skinner, a retired art teacher, has written an impassioned letter to Lord Waddington concerning the grave dangers to freedom of conscience and principled action which the Equality Bill poses. He says that this legislation is 'sweeping Europe'.

"I have sent this to Lord Waddington. Britain is sleeping whilst in the most grave of dangers.Anglican Mainstream have put my petition on their site and we are appealing to ex pats of Britain, or I suppose anyone with a British passport, to sign up. I feel like the opererator tapping out the last Mayday messages on the Titanic. It is sweeping the European Union and the eventually the whole of the West, unless Christians and people of other faiths make a stand."

“I would urge you to support amendments to the Bill which will return the exceptions contained in Schedule 9 of the Equality Bill to the current position under the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) and (religion or belief) Regulations 2003. I would urge you to support amendments which provide freedom of religion, freedom of association and the ability for faith organisations to be staffed by people of that faith. I would urge you to support a change to the Explanatory Note to Schedule 9 paragraph 3 that acknowledges these points.”

“The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance” - Thomas Jefferson

I am no lawyer, just a retired art teacher but I wonder how many people in Britain have either the time, the understanding, patience or desire – especially at this time of the year – to plough through line upon line, word upon word of endless legal clauses which, on the face of it, sound so abstract and innocuous, but which will, I believe, make a devastating impact, not only on Christians, but people of all faiths and none? To me, the unsubtle attempt to air brush the human rights of Christians out the Equality Bill is only the beginning of removing the rights from all, apart from those who hold the reins of power and who “want what they want, when they want it.” Today it is Christians; tomorrow it will be Jews ; then it will be Jamaicans and so on.

Ever since the 1960s, laws, that once protected the sanctity of marriage and human life, and which were designed to restrain and channel the power of sexual behaviour, so that it might be a force for creativity, have been, repealed, one by one, only to be replaced by laws discriminating against marriage and the unborn. This has resulted in the destruction and misery of abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual abuse, the destruction of the family and a nihilistic younger generation who are committing acts of violence that were once even rare amongst adults.

Whilst society is constantly distracted by wars, the economy, “climate change,” and the antics of celebrities, our political leaders deny that our society is broken. These are excerpts from the preamble to the Sexual Orientation Regulations ( 2006), overseen by the ex-chief executive of Stonewall and lesbian, Angela Mason, of the Women’s Equality Unity. They are signed off by the government ministers, Meg Munn and Alan Johnson:-

“Significant progress has been made over the past forty years – since the first anti-discrimination legislation was introduced – towards achieving such a society in which everybody can achieve their full potential, unfettered by prejudice or discrimination. ………..”“It is unlikely that British society would be as diverse and successful as it is today without these landmark pieces of legislation…..” “These changes represent a significant step towards making Britain a much fairer and more equitable place ………”

Marriage under threat

Lady Hale (who, for many years, was the key person driving the Law Commission’s anti-marriage agenda) said back in 1980: “logically, we have already reached a point at which we should be considering whether the legal institution of marriage continues to serve any useful purpose.” And yet apparently denying that she said this she was enthusiastic to extend the rights of marriage to homosexuals. Clearly she rejects the universal understanding of marriage but is quite happy for the gays to appropriate it, change it to mean something else and then conceivably to discard it completely.

During the last three years there has been a sudden acceleration in the pace of laws that once connected sexual behaviour with the creation of both life and the family being repealed and replaced by dualistic laws that lead to promiscuity. In 2007 the Sexual Orientation Regulations came into force; quickly followed by the gay adoption bill; in 2008 the incitement to homophobic bill was enacted and almost immediately there was a concerted effort to muzzle anyone criticising homosexuality. Now we have a law that will demand that homosexuality is celebrated by all - without exception.

In all this, so called progress, the main obstacle has always been the Bible and the Christian. It is my belief that when Stonewall say that “there is so much more work to be done," what they really mean is that it is only when the legacy of 2000 years of Christianity are eradicated from Britain, that they will feel all obstacles to get “what they want, when they want it” have been removed. (Catch phrase of Gaydar.com, and Gaydar Radio, an organisation supported by Stonewall - check it out!). I am not alone in seeing a parallel here between the rise of homosexual power and that of Nazism before WW11

The philosopher Will Durant, speaking of the journey that our civilisation took from barbarism to civilisation, said that it had required centuries, but “the journey from civilisation to barbarism needs but a day.” His words were echoed in 2007 at the end of the debate on Gay Adoption by Gerald Howarth MP when he said "Tony Blair has given us 20 months to adapt 2,000 years of Christian teaching. It's unacceptable." Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall contemptuously dismissed Christian morality by saying, “We felt six or twelve months would be a reasonable period for agencies to retrain their (adoption) staff but if it takes eighteen months to reverse a thousand years of prejudice, we can probably live with that.”

If implemented this bill will undoubtedly see the Church driven underground and persecuted in a way never before experienced in Britain. We will join the ranks of those Christians presently suffering in Islamic and communist countries. Indeed, there is now case after case appearing of Christians being denigrated in the media, being publicly humiliated, intimidated by the police, being hounded out their jobs, being threatened with fines and imprisonment and soon the threat of having their children taken away from them by social services - all in the name of equality. An article that appeared in the Mail, 27th Jan.2007, entitled “Who has the courage to take on these new tyrants,” pointed out to us then the black cloud on the horizon: “Why can't Catholics be allowed to live according to their consciences?" The Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York have perhaps rather belatedly asked this question in a letter to the Prime Minister.

Matters of Conscience

No one would maintain that people should be permitted to follow their consciences in every case.Obviously they should not be allowed to do so if they threaten others. Islamic terrorists are presumably acting according to their consciences when they try to blow us up. But the Roman Catholics in this instance pose no threat. They are forcing no one to accept their values. They are merely asking to be able to live by their own lights, which are the traditional values of the Church throughout the ages, and which are still accepted by many millions of Christians and non-Christians in this country, including (I would hazard) many homosexuals.

Roman Catholics are faced by the tyranny of the majority or, to be precise, by the tyranny of a large and vocal minority which passes itself off as the majority. This group wishes to impose its values on those who have different values, as in another age homophobes tried to impose their values on homosexuals.

We are not talking here about an honest divergence of opinion. My blood ran cold when on Tuesday night I watched Angela Eagle, Labour MP, a member of the party's national executive and an open lesbian, being interviewed by Mr Paxman. He turned to her fondly when he had finished sneering at the Archbishop of Birmingham. Ms Eagle said that the new law putting homosexuals on an equal legal footing with heterosexuals in adoptions would have to apply to everyone, including Roman Catholics.She actually said: "We can't have exceptions."There is no room for discretion, no opportunity for people to live by different, and equally valid, standards. Everyone must conform.Here is the authentic voice of totalitarianism. "We can't have exceptions." That is a chilling statement which disturbs me more than I can say. In Ms Eagle's grim world, there can be no differences, no discretion. Isn't the exercise of mercy a discretion? Not for Ms Eagle. "We can't have exceptions." I don't know whether her views are typical of those in the Cabinet and the wider party, but I suspect they are.

This is totalitarianism

This is more than an issue about Christian magistrates, registrars, teachers, nurses and police, working in the secular world, who whilst in no way attempting to impose their Christian values onto others, are themselves being forced to resign from their posts: this is about Christians in their own churches, and those of other faiths and none, in their own homes, being forced to conform to practices that are to them an abomination. This is totalitarianism.

On 3rd March, 2008 in the House of Lords, during the debate on the offence of hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, Lord Monson , recounting a previous debate, fifty years ago, when the Wolfenden Report resulted in a relaxation of the homosexual laws, quoted the prophetic voice of one of his contemporaries :“Yes, the Wolfenden proposals are all very well, but they are the thin end of the wedge. The pendulum is bound to swing too far in the other direction. Mark my words, before many years are out, they”—the more militant homosexuals and not, of course, the ordinary discreet sort—“will demand not merely toleration for their sexual activities—no problem about that—but positive respect, even admiration, for them”. ‘To which I (Lord Monson) replied, “Oh, come on. Nonsense. You’re being alarmist”.‘With hindsight, I have to say that I was wrong and they were right.’

What Lord Monson, maybe never saw, even two years ago, was that mere toleration would change to total domination and oppression. The amendments to the Equality Bill are a cover for indoctrination, inquisition and an attack on truth itself. To argue, by appealing to reason, for exemptions from the Sexual Orientation Regulations and all the legislation that is subsequently flowing from them, is futile when our opponents, enjoy an influence in government that most MPs can only dream of.

Not even Socrates, or John Milton would make the slightest impression on Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson, Harriet Harman, the Eagle twins, Ben Summerskill, Ben Bradshaw or Chris Bryant et al. In fact the clearer and more articulate a person is in defending our cause, the more likely they are to be accused of homophobia – the trump card, that silences all dissent.

But how have they got away with it? Society, distracted and disconnected from the real world by the flat screen, has become apathetic. Its only concern is defending its personal peace and comfort. By contrast, for several decades, especially during the last one, Stonewall has been focused and determined. It has a programme, set objectives, a time-table and, experiencing no opposition, has been emboldened in repeating often and loudly – loudly and often – lies that no one seems to have the courage to challenge anymore: homosexuality is natural and that homosexuals are being bullied disproportionately more than the obese, short, tall, clever, stupid or just plain different.

I am

Yours sincerely,

David Skinner

Postscript: David Skinner has written to friends:

Dear Friends,

The days are getting darker as the government – after doing a soft shoe shuffle – has given the illusion that it has backed down on its amendments to the Equality Bill that would force people to act against their God-given consciences, especially those who believe that children are best raised in a family composed of one father and one mother, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins and four grandparents – as it has done since history began. But one thing is certain and that is that our morally bankrupt political leaders cannot be trusted. The latest version of the Equality Bill is in effect is worse than that produced in 2003.

I wish to thank you therefore for those who have already signed the petition but listen, folks, we need to quadruple our efforts. We are at war and it will not be won by complacency, sticking our heads in the sand, or thinking that someone else will come to our rescue. We need a million signatures, so please wherever you are, right where you are, start fighting for your freedom and that of your children – before it is lost forever. Sign the petition and let us deliver it right through the front door of No 10 Downing Street.

“Well, well, well, Mr Bigot himself;”… “the rant above is not an effective way to make a point. This sort of spittle-flecked "Alf Garnett" style is the sort of thing you read from "retired major, Cheltenham" writing in disgust to the Torygraph”……..”I suggest you adopt an approach that doesnt echo Fred Phelps or Pat Robertson. (OR Iris Robinson for that matter)”

I have to ask myself Alec, who really is the extreme fundamentalist bigot, getting bent out of shape, here?

It is true perhaps that you may never have compared "homosexuals getting bullied and murdered disproportionately more than coloureds..."’ but you certainly did say, “Read your history Mr Bigot, homosexuals went to the death camps, just like the Jews did.” No, sir, they did not go to the death camps like six million Jews; they went to the death camps numbering thousands, not even tens of thousands, less indeed than the number of Poles, gypsies, the old and mentally subnormal etc.If homosexuals had been treated like Jews, and if, as I am sure, you would claim 6 or 10 % of the population is homosexual then millions of them should have lost their businesses, their jobs, their property, their possessions and most should have lost their lives. They would have been forced to wear pink triangles on their clothing in the streets, they would have had their passports stamped with an “H,” barred from travel, work, shopping, public appearances without their armbands, and we would have thousands of pictures of pink triangle graffiti saying “kill the faggots,” and the like.

Alec, as for your claim that it is only the few lucky gays, who have managed to escape, so called, homophobia and to find “decent jobs with employers who actually care“, whilst “the ones who are in the playground, and, sad to say, in the church… as well as many other places” continue to be oppressed and downtrodden, .. I would first like to ask who are these lucky few, who, in spite of the odds stacked against them, “have managed to rise to decent jobs with employers who actually care.”?

Stonewall and its chief executives, (Sir) Ian Mckellen, Angela Mason and Ben Summerskill are the most powerful lobby group in Britain, having a seat around the table of the Commission for Human Rights and Equality. Homosexuals hold some of the highest posts in government. I need not list their names. What other minority group gets the privilege of writing legislation to discriminate against those who oppose their views or to the delivery all the goods and services it wants, including children.

Airlines, banks and Pepsi Cola are falling over themselves to celebrate their sexual activities. The media is controlled by them with every other TV presenter being gay. I needn’t list them here; we all know them. Neil Mcgregor, the homosexual director of the British Museum, who is presenting a new series, entitled A History of the world in a Hundred Objects, must surely be a product of the Frankfurt school that was determined to undermine western, Christian civilisation through a range of measures that included revising history and the use of homosexuals. Indeed I attended a terrifying day at the British Museum, last November, where there was pre- launch to next month’s LGBT history month. Children were taken around and shown the bust of the pederast, Hardrian and his boy lover, Antinous. They were also shown the Warren cup, that depicted an older man and youth going at it. This was nothing short of conditioning and grooming children towards homosexuality and pederasty. In 2008 Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, led the London Pride and last year’s parade was rumoured to be led by leader of the Conservative party David Cameron. Today every leading political party not only has gay MPs on every frontbench, but at the heart of power in Downing St and in the House of Lords.They enjoy political power that the ordinary MP can only dream of. Lord Chris Smith who, apart from having HIV, presently controls a major organ of propaganda, the Advertising Standards Agency. Does this really sound like an oppressed and bullied minority? And what can we say about Peter Mandelson? “Decent jobs with employers who actually care!!!!!”

Whilst we are about it, Alec, let us take a closer look at the “oppressed“, those on whom Summerskill bestows awards at its annual Stonewall Awards ceremony, and in particular at an organisation called, Gaydar, whose founder, Garry Frisch committed suicide by throwing himself from the eight floor of a block of flats. This is a gay dating web site that has over 4 million subscribers globally.In the Europride 2006 awards ceremony, Gaydar came third after Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Elton John. Gaydar is where Mark Oaten (UK Liberal MP) met his sticky end, and Chris Bryant, the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, was revealed in his underpants looking for lust. Boy George was on there, as are many other famous faces and bodies. He was recently released from prison after serving only four months of his 15-month sentence for falsely imprisoning a male prostitute Audun Carlsen, shackling him to a wall of his flat and lashing him with a chain.

Alec you talk as though the gays are being targeted disproportionately more than the rest of society, but you fail to mention that Between 1st January 2008 and the 21st June 2009 over seventy teenagers had died violent deaths in the UK, none of whose deaths, of which I am aware, were motivated by so called homophobia. There is no mention of adults like Mr Garry Newlove who have also been murdered in broad daylight by teenagers, or that a quarter of teachers in the UK have had to deal with violent students in the classroom. How many of these were homophobic incidents? The disorder and increased levels violence that we experience in Britain are due to the kind of nihilism and deconstruction of morals and categories being advanced by Stonewall et al. The promotion of homosexuality is doing nothing more than pouring petrol on a society already in meltdown.

You make no mention of children who were abused by homosexual paedophiles whilst in the tender care of social services in Islington, North Wales, and Wakefield and on the Island of Jersey (where investigation of homosexual abuse of children is still being conducted). There is no mention of mass homosexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Homes in Ireland, nor that conducted by monsters like Michael Goad in Devon whose received a derisory prison sentence after destroying the lives of hundreds of his male victims.

And, Alec whilst we are talking about the hard done-by Scott Rennie, let us mention another Rennie: James Rennie, the publicly funded chief executive of LGBT youth Scotland who was a key adviser on sex education to the Scottish Executive He was convicted of sexual abuse over four years of a

David Skinner (Guest)

17/01/2010 21:53

over four years of a young boy that started when only a 3-month-old baby and the attempted rape of an 18-month-old boy. Rennie was at the centre of Scotland’s biggest paedophile network and the police are investigating another 70 men throughout the UK. How many lives have been destroyed? Why not mention Jonathan Scarcliffe and David Bell who were part of an international paedophile ring that assaulted little boys as young as 17 months and who put thousands of child porn images, along with films made at various locations including a Warwick park and a Leamington swimming pool, on the internet?

Please don’t get me started.

Finally, Alec, I wish to address your comment: “Plus there is an element of "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" to quote Shakespeare. Doesnt look good,”plus you’re referring to my contributing to Pink News. Clearly you are suggesting that I am a repressed or closeted homosexual?I was urged by friends, last April I believe, to respond to comments being made on Pink News, regarding a healing conference, to be held in London, for those wanting to break free from unwanted homosexual orientations. Jo Nicolosi, from NARTH had flown over from the States to run this conference. Those commentators sounded uncannily like you Alec. Many responding to what I had to say were abusive, obscene, phobic, militant and extreme.

Why on earth, if as you seem to be suggesting, and, if I am a homosexual, was I eventually banned from contributing to this site. At some stage the attacks on me became so intense that I had to resort to using all kinds of pseudonyms, such as Ashurbanipal, King Kong, Belthazar, King Arthur and Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. It was highly entertaining. Some might criticise me by saying that I should not have wasted time visiting such a site, but I disagree. It is such a valuable source of information regarding the militant homosexual mind. Plus the brief time that I spent, just as with you Alec, debating truth from fiction was valuable training for me. How else will one come to know the enemy unless one gets into close quarters?

Finally Alec, even Peter Tatchell has said that homosexuality isn’t natural. Read it for yourself. Finally if a thousand black women were impregnated with black semen and their foetuses were developed in a thousand white women and the resulting babies were adopted by white parents, the babies, would still be coloured - 100%.

But if a thousand lesbian women were impregnated with homosexual semen and the foetuses were developed in a thousand so called heterosexual women and the resulting babies were adopted by so called heterosexual, stable, well adjusted and mature parents, what percentage of the babies would be gay? 100%, 50%, 10% 6% 1% 0.5%. There is no gay gene and even if they could find it, doctors could then change it using invasive surgery.

Enough, I have a great deal of work to do.

As I was saying.........over four years of a young boy that started when only a 3-month-old baby and the attempted rape of an 18-month-old boy. Rennie was at the centre of Scotland’s biggest paedophile network and the police are investigating another 70 men throughout the UK. How many lives have been destroyed? Why not mention Jonathan Scarcliffe and David Bell who were part of an international paedophile ring that assaulted little boys as young as 17 months and who put thousands of child porn images, along with films made at various locations including a Warwick park and a Leamington swimming pool, on the internet?

Please don’t get me started.

Finally, Alec, I wish to address your comment: “Plus there is an element of "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" to quote Shakespeare. Doesnt look good,”plus you’re referring to my contributing to Pink News. Clearly you are suggesting that I am a repressed or closeted homosexual?I was urged by friends, last April I believe, to respond to comments being made on Pink News, regarding a healing conference, to be held in London, for those wanting to break free from unwanted homosexual orientations. Jo Nicolosi, from NARTH had flown over from the States to run this conference. Those commentators sounded uncannily like you Alec. Many responding to what I had to say were abusive, obscene, phobic, militant and extreme.

Why on earth, if as you seem to be suggesting, and, if I am a homosexual, was I eventually banned from contributing to this site. At some stage the attacks on me became so intense that I had to resort to using all kinds of pseudonyms, such as Ashurbanipal, King Kong, Belthazar, King Arthur and Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. It was highly entertaining. Some might criticise me by saying that I should not have wasted time visiting such a site, but I disagree. It is such a valuable source of information regarding the militant homosexual mind. Plus the brief time that I spent, just as with you Alec, debating truth from fiction was valuable training for me. How else will one come to know the enemy unless one gets into close quarters?

Finally Alec, even Peter Tatchell has said that homosexuality isn’t natural. Read it for yourself. Finally if a thousand black women were impregnated with black semen and their foetuses were developed in a thousand white women and the resulting babies were adopted by white parents, the babies, would still be coloured - 100%.

But if a thousand lesbian women were impregnated with homosexual semen and the foetuses were developed in a thousand so called heterosexual women and the resulting babies were adopted by so called heterosexual, stable, well adjusted and mature parents, what percentage of the babies would be gay? 100%, 50%, 10% 6% 1% 0.5%. There is no gay gene and even if they could find it, doctors could then change it using invasive surgery.

Campaigners for homosexual rights, use vituperation, demonisation, intimidation, brow beating and coercion to repress anyone upholding moral value and the dignity of human virtue simply because they act to restrain unprincipled sexual promiscuity.

It is right to acknowledge that individual homosexuals have featured powerless in the margins of society throughout history. However, history also teaches that a dominant culture of homosexuality has only flourished episodically during particular periods and under certain conditions.

This should alert us to the impermanence of its nature and the fact that it is temporary follows from the consequences of it being unnatural, unhealthy and immoral. Thus, unbridled gay rights are a quixotic amoral recipe for a social catastrophe.

Moreover, medical science tells us two important things about the status of homosexuality. First, the condition is not set in stone because it is fluid, and second, most gays eventually revert back to their heterosexual identity.

But most important of all, we are now condescending to the formal teaching of homosexuality in our schools by allowing homosexuals to confuse the little fragile minds of children. The incalculable results of this experiment are likely to be harrowing beyond comprehension.

It is as if we are anaesthetised to this doom-laden super-hoax that defies rationality that will eventually engulf us all.

We are witnessing the frightful beginning of a new inquisition.

In a free, modern, democratic society you might judge this impossible.

Well, consider this. In June 2008, the Canadian Government’s Human Rights Commission, acting as a sodomy Star Chamber, formally ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality. He was also ordered to pay $5,000 in damages when no damages had occurred.

In the same year, this same commission made additional attempts to de-Christianise a Christian-evangelical service in Ontario which employed 2,500 people working for 1,400 disabled people in 180 homes. They were ordered to abandon their religious mission by dropping its Christian moral code and attempted to compel all employees to undergo diversity training.in line with the human rights code.

Here at home, we also have examples where Christian value and expression are being inexorably publicly banned by a process of a thousand cuts. Each one stronger than the last.

But it goes beyond the simple perspective of religion to now include attempts to sideline a serious academic treatise challenging a false shibboleth of homosexual propaganda.

Consider the case of Paediatrician Joy Holloway who had been humiliated and barred from her position as a member of an Adoptions Panel with Newcastle City Health NHS Trust and who then compiled a research paper demonstrating the real harm of gay adoptions.

Similarly, in 2009 Doctor Sheila Matthews faced the same dilemma when working for the Adoption Panel in Northamptonshire. Working with parents and children, she was a community paediatrician with 18 years service. She had been working with the panel for 5 years and was a doctor of some 28 years experience. She made it formally known that she objected to same-sex parenting and asked to be excused those rare cases when they arose.

She observed, “Using my professional judgement and having done a lot of reading around the subject, I am satisfied that there are research findings which support my position that a same sex partnership is not the best setting to bring up children.”

Martin Pratt, Head of Service for Children arbitrarily removed her from the panel.

This is the new ugly face of modern morality and ‘human rights' that is being cynically used to cripple civic, moral and religious discourse.

Creeping condemnation of Christian public comment is also chillingly evident closer to home. Powerful voices are urging the British Equality and Human Rights Commission; soon to be further strengthened; to act in a similar way to that of the Canadian HRC.

Indeed, in December 2008 the Advertising Standards Agency banned a religious advert because it made biblical references to homosexuality which it considered offensive.

Surprisingly, Jeff Dudgeon, a leading gay law reformer, condemned the prohibition.

We live in a state of frightening confusion. Homosexuals claim material is offensive when it does not endorse their pernicious and permissive sexual ethics. It never occurs to them, or their apologists that in the first instance their behaviour is inherently immoral and culturally unpleasant.

Another reason why homosexuals continue to invert standards of sexual behaviour by stifling the truth.

It is worth repeating that people are generally loath to offend gays. However, most well-meaning people do not recognize that as the homosexual agenda broadens and takes a deeper root in conventional society then it does so by thwarting important religious, secular and civic freedoms of speech, conscience and association.

As has been noted elsewhere, homosexuality is a unique manifestation of hedonism. Instead of producing children, it preys on them. Instead of keeping to itself, it proselytises. Instead of promoting health and stability (as does marriage), it thrives on aggression, spreads disease and destroys it practitioners, emotionally and physically.

George Orwell was right! In times of universal deception, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Alec (Guest)

18/01/2010 14:36

Peter said: "knock yourself out!"

I think I might just do that - I cant stand this any more.... its like opening a bottle and letting some sort of genie out . (FX: fumbles furiously with the cork....)

Submitted on behalf of C. Brian Ross (as a copy of a letter to the Herald newspaper)

It is with some astonishment that I read that the plan of the Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy, to counteract the threatened opposition by the BNP in his East Renfrewshire Westminster Constituency, is " ... to recruit Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups to fight what he described as the “abhorrent” far-right party." (The Herald, 17-01-10).

Is Mr Murphy prepared to stand up for the rights of these very groups whose support he is planning to solicit, against the further restrictions of the planned Equality Bill, now going through the House of Lords? The present law allows, e.g. churches and other Christian organisations, to refuse to employ persons who do not share their core beliefs, in particular those whose sexual conduct is contrary to the teachings of the Bible. This I should point out, includes adulterers and fornicators just as much as active homosexuals/lesbians.

However, the Government's Equality Bill is an attempt to erode such exemption so that it will apply only to those whose employment wholly, or mainly, involves the leading of worship, or the promotion/explanation of doctrine. Apart from the fact that even a full-time parish minister spends a considerable amount of time in areas such as pastoral work that are outwith the now-proposed exemption parameters, there are many churches who employ a deacon/deaconess; a youth worker; a church secretary; etc., whose terms of employment would certainly not fall within the terms of the 'new' exemption.

As if this is not bad enough, I am concerned that this will be just another push at the wedge that is rapidly marginalising Christianity in this country. If this is successful, the next potential move would be to have the narrower exemption apply to volunteers - Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade officers, Sunday School teachers, Youth Fellowship leaders, to name a few.

The track record of the present government, with regard to religious liberty, is not one of which they have any right to be proud. However, Mr Murphy will presumably seek assistance from anyone who might save his political skin, regardless of how he and his colleagues have treated them in the past! I hold no truck with the BNP; but the present Labour Party do nothing to give me confidence that, as far as Biblical Christianity (any other is a sham) is concerned, they would not be content to see its adherents suffer the level of persecution that is the lot of disciples of Jesus in more than fifty countries around the world.

Yours faithfully

C.Brian Ross (Rev)

Ray (Guest)

27/03/2010 23:42

Failed as an artist eh; those who can't do teach. You could not find any self liberating powers through those channels, so you though you would gain a sense of importance by beating people with the cross.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” – Gandhi

Jesus Christ (the sinless Son of God) did not, could not sin. Christians on the other hand, like all human beings can and do sin. This is where Gandhi, and many other critics of Christianity get it wrong.

Thankfully there are many Christians who do reflect Christ well in their lives, maybe you haven't met any yet Ray!